Kuchisake-onna

Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女, "cleft mouth woman\Slit Mouth Woman ") is a malevolent figure appearing in Japanese ghost stories, possibly dating back to the Edo period. As a living serial killer, she approaches her victims with seemingly innocuous questions before killing them, usually with a pair of scissors.

Mythology

She is a woman who was mutilated by her husband, and returns as a malicious spirit. When rumors of alleged sightings began spreading in 1979 around the Nagasaki Prefecture, it spread throughout Japan and caused panic in many towns. There are even reports of schools allowing children to go home only in groups, escorted by teachers for safety,[1] and of police increasing their patrols. Recent sightings include many reports in South Korea in 2004 about a woman wearing a red mask, who was frequently seen chasing children, and in October 2007, a coroner found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing little children. She was then hit by a car, and died shortly after. Her mouth was ripped from ear to ear.[2]

Although some stories describe her as a former patient of a mental asylum, a more common story describes that in the Heian period, her husband found out that she was having an affair with another samurai. He used a sword to cut her mouth from ear to ear and asked, "Who will think you are beautiful now?"[2]

The original legend

Diagram of likely conversations with Kuchisake-onna according to the modern legend.

According to the legend, she covers her mouth with a cloth mask, a fan, or a scarf.

The woman will ask a potential victim "Am I pretty?" If he or she answers yes, she will remove her mask and ask him or her again in a girly voice. If the potential victim answers yes or screams, she will slash the victim from ear to ear so that the victim resembles her. If he or she answers no, she will walk away, only to follow her victim home and brutally murder him or her that night. Said reaction also occurs if you say no before she removes her mask.

To avoid this fate, several people during the Edo period claimed that they gave her confusing answers like average and so-so or threw money or hard candy at her, buying themselves time to run away and lose her.[3]

Modern legend

According to the legend, she walks around wearing a surgical mask.

The woman will ask a potential victim "Am I pretty?" If they answer no, she will kill them with a pair of scissors, which she carries in her pocket. If they answer yes, she will pull away the mask, revealing that her mouth is slit from ear to ear, and ask, "How about now?" If they answer no, she will cut her unfortunate victim in half. If the person answers yes, then she will slit his/her mouth so it resembles her mouth. It is impossible to run away from her, as she will simply reappear in front of the victim.

When the legend reappeared in the 1970s, rumors of ways to escape also emerged. Some sources say she can also be confused by the victim answering her question with ambiguous answers, such as "You are average" or "So-so". Another method is to flip her questions towards her, such as asking her "Do you think I'm pretty?" Unsure of what to do, she will give a person enough time to escape while she is lost in thought. Another escape route is to tell her one has a previous engagement; she will pardon her manners and excuse herself. In some variations of the tale, she can be distracted by fruit or candies thrown at her which she will then pick up, thus giving the victim a chance to run.

Backstory

Kuchisake-Onna, as told commonly, was a beautiful, young woman that lived in a village of Japan. She would roam around the village, and ask the folks, "Am I pretty?", to which they would reply with an enthusiastic "yes". This made her very confident in herself, and as she was married to an intelligent samurai, she believed that she would be able to get away with an affair with a noble soldier. But her husband found out, and in anger, asked the soldier, "Why her? Why my lady rather than all other women of the village?", to which he replied, "For she is the most beautiful of the village, I cannot pass up such an opportunity." The samurai adored his honesty, and acknowledged that he had the right response and reason. The soldier was poor after all, and had not had many positive things occur in his life. Although the soldier had proper intentions, the samurai's wife did not. She was the most beautiful woman of the village, and without that, she would be nothing. The samurai angrily took his sword upon her face, and slit her mouth from ear to ear, making her no longer beautiful. Soon after, she killed herself, and was banished to eternity of avenging her own pain.

Live action

  • Kuchisake-onna, directed by Teruyoshi Ishii (1996)
  • The Slit-Mouthed Woman a.k.a. Kuchisake, directed by Takaaki Hashiguchi (2005)
  • Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman a.k.a. Kuchisake-onna, directed by Kōji Shiraishi (2007)
  • Kaiki toshi-densetsu - Kuchisake-onna, directed by Toru Furukawa (2008)
  • Carved 2: The Scissors Massacre a.k.a. The Slit-Mouthed Woman 2 a.k.a. Kuchisake-onna 2, directed by Kotaro Terauchi (2008)
  • The Slit-Mouthed Woman 0: The Beginning a.k.a. Kuchisake-onna 0: Biginingu, directed by Kazuto Kodama (2008)
  • Uwasa no Shinsō! Kuchisake-onna, directed by Kōji Shiraishi (2008)
  • Kuchisake-onna Two, directed by Eiji Kamikura (2010)
  • Keitai Ura Site: Kuchisake-onna, directed by Yuji Ichinose (2010)
  • Hikiko-san VS Kuchisake-onna, directed by Hisashi Nagaoka (2011)
  • Kuchisake-onna Returns, directed by Jun'ichi Yamamoto (2012)
  • Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File-01 "Kuchisake-onna Hokaku Sakusen", directed by Kōji Shiraishi (2012)
  • Slit Mouth Woman in L.A., directed by Kay Hiro and Yo Hirose (2014)
  • Kuchisake-onna vs Kashima-san, directed by Naoya Asanuma (2017)

Manga and anime

  • Kuchi-sake Onna
  • Kuchisake Onna Densetsu
  • Kanojo wa Rokurokubi (as Yotchy)
  • Yokaiden

Other appearances

The Kuchisake-onna also makes an appearance in:

The Kuchisake-onna was planned to make an appearance in episode 5 of Ghost Stories, but it was banned after several complaints that her disfigurement looked too much like a cleft palate.[4]

There have also been various references and mentions of the Kuchisake-onna, and even multiple inspirations:

  • In the series Sherlock, season 3 episode 4: "the abominable bride", after returning from the death, a bride asks her former husband "am I beautiful?" proceeding to shoot him dead.
  • The Kuchisake-onna was mentioned in an episode of Detective Conan.
  • Kuchisake-onna is also mentioned in the Japanese visual novel, Rewrite.
  • Perhaps not intentional, but Mortal Kombat's character, Mileena, is possibly based on the Kuchisake-onna. She even wanted to be beautiful in some of the games, just like the spirit.
  • In Danganronpa, the split personality of character Touko Fukawa, the scissors-wielding serial killer Genocider Syo, was most likely inspired by Kuchisake-onna.
  • Kayo Sudou's character from The Evillious Chronicles is inspired by the Kuchisake-onna.
  • She is parodied in chapter 123 of "+ Tic Nee-san"
  • There is an item in the MMO The Secret World called Kuchisake-onna's Scissors

See also

References

  1. ↑ Severed Mouth Woman on YouTube
  2. 1 2 "Kuchisake Onna | The Mask of Reason".
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  4. ↑ "LiveLeak.com - The Slit-Mouthed Woman (J-Horror)". liveleak.com.
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